Our conferences provide the opportunity to hear the latest research in energy economics and dialogue that takes place between industry, government and academia. IAEE meets globally between three to five times per year. Don’t miss your opportunity to present your research.

Membership in IAEE is open to anyone worldwide who has an interest in the fields of energy or energy economics. Our membership consists of those working in both the public and private sectors including government, academic and commercial.

IAEE publishes three publications throughout the year. These are The Energy Journal, Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy and the Energy Forum. Members of the association receive these publications as part of their membership.

Abstract: The coincident rise in crude oil prices and increased number of financial participants in the crude oil futures market from 2000-2008 has led to allegations that "speculators" drive crude oil prices. As crude oil futures peaked at $147/ bbl in July 2008, the role of speculators came under heated debate. In this paper, we employ unique data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to test the relation between crude oil prices and the trading positions of various types of traders in the crude oil futures market. We employ Granger Causality tests to analyze lead and lag relations between price and position data at daily and multiple day intervals. We find little evidence that hedge funds and other non-commercial (speculator) position changes Granger-cause price changes; the results instead suggest that price changes precede their position changes.